Freed journalist Roxana Saberi writing a memoir

PEOPLE

Hillel Italie, Associated Press

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Photo: Thibault Camus, AP

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US-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi is seen after her meeting with French Human Rights junior minister Rama Yade, unseen, at the Quai d'Orsay, in Paris, Monday, June 22, 2009. The meeting is about an appeal to release Iranian humanitarian worker Silva Harotonian who has been imprisoned in Iran for one year. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) less

US-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi is seen after her meeting with French Human Rights junior minister Rama Yade, unseen, at the Quai d'Orsay, in Paris, Monday, June 22, 2009. The meeting is about an appeal to ... more

Photo: Thibault Camus, AP

Freed journalist Roxana Saberi writing a memoir

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A journalist imprisoned for four months in Iran on charges of espionage has a book deal.

Iranian American Roxana Saberi, 32, is working on a memoir that HarperCollins will publish in March. Saberi's still-untitled book will tell of her arrest in January, her initial sentence to eight years in prison and her release in May after being granted a two-year suspended sentence.

According to a statement issued Monday by HarperCollins, the memoir will also be "a penetrating look at Iranian society and culture based on six years of research and interviews with Iranians across the society - and its political tensions which have sparked debate across the globe."

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Financial terms were not disclosed. Saberi was represented by Washington attorney Robert Barnett, whose clients include President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Saberi had started a book about Iran at the time of her arrest and that material will be included in her memoir, Barnett said.

In a case that outraged human rights activists, Saberi was convicted of spying for the United States in a closed-door trial that her Iranian-born father said lasted only 15 minutes. She was freed May 11 and reunited with her parents, who had gone to Iran to seek her release.

Raised in Fargo, N.D., and a former Miss North Dakota, Saberi spent six years in Iran as a freelance journalist for the BBC and other news organizations.

Iranian authorities accused her initially of working without press credentials, but later leveled the far more serious charge of spying. Iran released few details about the allegations that she passed intelligence to the United States.

The United States called the charges baseless and repeatedly demanded her release, and her arrest became an obstacle to Obama's attempts at dialogue with the longtime U.S. adversary.